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Sunday, December 16, 2018

3 Tips for Writing Seasonal Stories

Now before anybody starts freaking out about or praising my
“politically correct” title, allow me to clarify: I will not just be talking
about Christmas stories but also about stories set in specific seasons whether
it be Christmas or All Saints Day (Nov. 1, DE), the Fourth of July (US) or Guy
Fawkes Day (Nov. 5, UK). However, I will be focusing a lot on Christmas stories
for my examples because the holiday is nearly upon us, but these tips can apply
to various holidays.

1) Consider the
Literature Written about that Season

Research. Research. Research.

Ask yourself what are the themes that are usually connected
with this season? What do the settings look like? What makes the literature
worthwhile? How can I write something unique?

When it comes to Christmas stories, I don’t necessarily
enjoy ones filled with white Christmases (I’ve never had one) and mistletoe
(not a romance fan either), but I do enjoy narratives with realistic characters
and great themes.

2) Please No More
Stereotypes

A Christmas Carol
and It’s a Wonderful Life are among
my favorite Christmas movies because they’re not your typical
everything-is-perfect Christmas stories. I wonder what Charles Dickens was thinking
when he wrote his famous book. “You know what Christmas stories really need?
How about a stuffy businessman, ghosts, and death?” It’s a Wonderful Life, on the other hand, hardly takes place during
Christmastime at all. Not really. And it’s a story about a man contemplating
suicide. Merry Christmas—here’s more death (potentially).

Yet both stories have been considered classics for years. Why?
Because in light of darkness, they offer hope.

Christmas is a time about love and hope, certainly. But that
doesn’t mean the day is exempt from tragedy. During WWI, troops on both the
German and British ceased fighting to celebrate Christmas Day only to resume
fighting the next. When I was a kid, my dad was deployed in Afghanistan, and we
got to meet up with him for Christmas, only to have him go back after a week.
Another time, when I was a teenager, my dad was the on-call duty chaplain,
meaning he had to carry a government cell phone with him and be ready to
respond to any emergencies regarding the military—and he had to go counsel the
wife of a service member who committed suicide on Christmas morning.

Even Mary and Joseph fled with young Jesus because King
Herod was trying to kill him and massacring the toddlers and infants in
Bethlehem.

“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel
enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.
Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”—C. S. Lewis

3) Get Ready to Write Outside
the Season

Perhaps one of my favorite facts about It’s a Wonderful Life is that the film was shot during the summer
and that the actors were sweating wearing winter coats.

Writing is similar. If you can write, edit, pitch, edit
again and again and again and publish and market a Christmas story before the
Eve, HOW? Marketing itself is a long process, and even the fastest writers and
editors are dependent on an attentive audience. While you can write a certain
story during its set season, it’s not practical to only write then.

When I started writing “The List”, I was listening to
Christmas music for inspiration in July 2014. Submissions for Splickety ran
from August to September, and most of my edits took place during October/November.
Though the magazine released December 5, I didn’t receive my author copies
until January 2015. All that for a 1,000-word story.

If you’re going to write about a particular season, prepare
to be focused on it for a while, even longer than the season itself lasts.

There you have it. And because I’m not politically correct…

Let’s chat! What are some of your favorite Christmas stories?
Do you have any tips for writing stories about certain seasons?